Matadors Partner Files Suit

April 3, 1999|By ALAN SNEL Staff writer

A limited partner of the soon-to-be-extinct Miami Matadors minor-league hockey team accused the team's general partners of fraud after losing $500,000 in his investment in the club, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

Robert Alterman, who had a 20 percent stake in the Matadors, alleges that Bob Snyder of Weston and Robert Davis of Dunwoody, Ga., are selling the team for "well below what Davis and Snyder represented to Alterman was the value of the team,'' the suit says.

Davis and Snyder are selling the team for $1.2million, the suit says. Alterman argues in his lawsuit that Davis and Snyder informed him that no team could be sold for less than $2million.

"If the sale is consummated, Davis and Snyder will lose little, if anything, and since they have been collecting salaries from the partnership they may actually come out ahead. Alterman will lose his entire investment of over $500,000," the lawsuit says.

Davis and Snyder also did not contribute $875,000 to the partnership as they said they did, according to the suit.

Snyder would not respond directly to the allegations. He said, "We recognize we have a disgruntled investor. We feel badly for Bob and hope he can get on with his life. It's always sad to see situations like this. But they eventually resolve themselves.''

Snyder said he is selling the team to a Boston group, which plans to wait at least one season before resuming play in the East Coast Hockey League.